THE LITERARY SALON - the virtual 'book club hour' for Fairfield University - Herb Stern and Alan Winter, Tuesday, February 15 at 12:00 PM

Sins of the Fathers by Herbert J. Stern and Alan A. Winter is Steven Spielberg meets John le Carré in a high-voltage thriller about a behind-the-scenes revolt that might have saved the world. But what makes the novel as timely as it is chilling are the historic parallels with the present day, revealing the slippery ground we now tread.

The desire for an outsider to fix the political system.

The willingness to set aside critical thinking for an authoritarian display of power.

The erosion of rights and freedoms.

The calls to venerate “traditional” values.

And the scapegoating of those considered “different.”

Stern and Winter went deep into their research, finding facts that had been forgotten or never publicly known. They believe in the value of entertainment to inform and educate the public—too few of whom learned about World War II in school.

Sins of the Fathers is the eye-opening novel about the plot by German military leaders, career civil servants, and clergy to solicit England’s assistance to bring down the tyrant in 1938. When Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain refused to meet with them, they turned to Winston Churchill, who supported their cause. Armed with a strongly worded letter from the future prime minister, they waited for the telephone call telling them that Hitler had ordered the German troops to invade Czechoslovakia. This signal would launch their uprising—but the call did not come. Instead, Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Hitler’s apartment in Munich only to bow to the dictator’s will. The invasion was over before it began―and with that, so was the coup. Flying home, Chamberlain announced he had obtained “peace for our times.”

Sins of the Fathers―the sequel to Wolf, about Hitler’s rise to power―tells the dramatic true story of the prime minister who undermined the coup to topple the regime, delivered Czechoslovakia to Hitler, and in so doing, saved the Führer’s life and paved the road to World War II.

Alan Winter was born in Newark, NJ and graduated from Livingston High School. He graduated with honors in history from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, NJ, and earned post-graduate degrees from NYU and Columbia. His many professional accomplishments include editing a journal for 11 years, publishing more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, and having six novels published while being an associate professor at Columbia and NYU for more than 20 years.